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In 2015, artist and activist Gustav Metzger launched one of his last important works. Recognized for introducing auto-destructive art, Metzger had devoted his career to confronting global challenges from nuclear disarmament to ethical eating. In a brief video message, he requested support for a worldwide initiative to celebrate the natural world.

“I call upon you for your participation in this worldwide call for a day of action to reflect on the environment on November 4th, 2015,” he announced, encouraging artists and creatives to stand against the ongoing loss of living beings. “The mission is to make audiences aware of the diversity and intricacy in nature … and by doing so the arts will venture into domains that are naturally imaginative.”

The Creation of Environmental Reflection

Thus the environmental art day came into being, a day when artists across the country produced pieces to the ongoing environmental crisis. Jo Joelson, who supported Metzger in his later life, recalls his drive for action. “He had a strong sense of urgency for him at the end of his life,” she says. “I just said – let’s not mess around. Let’s not wait for funding or for anyone to authorize this. Let’s just do it.”

After Ten Years

A decade on, the project hasn’t quite sparked the widespread change across the arts that Metzger had dreamed of, but Joelson believes its influence can still be seen in campaigns like cultural advocacy groups and environmental protests, as well as in how artists approach the sustainability of their practices. For this purpose she is relaunching it to celebrate its decade milestone. Among the featured creators involved this time are Yu-Chen Wang and prominent artists. They have all produced imagery, recorded calls to action, and created artworks set to be presented on the fourth of November next year.

Sowing Change

Interviewing one participant, she is out in a field in the countryside, assisting with planting apple trees that will create a spiral-shaped orchard. Working with schoolchildren, her project is part creative piece and part learning experience. According to her, the preparation and sowing sessions have already incorporated learning about measurements (spacing the gaps in the orchard), biology (studying the hereditary traits), and history (researching the stories of how various cultivars arrived in Britain).

A lot of the apples were picked because they’ve got humorous titles such as the Bloody Butcher. We have one apple that releases red juice

“Several the apples were selected because they’ve got funny names such as the Duck’s Bill,” the artist notes. “We have one apple that ‘bleeds’ crimson liquid. They all have background narratives. The ancient variety was imported by the Romans. The Flower of Kent is the apple that dropped off a tree and landed on the physicist’s head.”

The artist aimed the children to be more consciously engaged of the environment and the influence we have over it. “To many of them, apples were just things you get at a supermarket, so I was prompting them, next time they were out, to check the packaging and see what they’re called and where they were grown. Ideally it reads Kent!”

Creative Initiatives Throughout Britain

Within the city, a participant’s Book of Loss will include attendees searching Tate Modern on a quest to find the seven major glaciers that have been disappeared in modern times. Each glacier will be illustrated on the museum surfaces using invisible ink. Whenever one is found, a bell will ring and a performance will be held to commemorate that specific ice mass.

Elsewhere, up in Barrow-in-Furness, an artist will be hosting a open display about our alienation from the environment, as well as holding a shared meal, prepared with organic, local produce. Further north, an artist is sharing her Some Kind of Love / Forest Choir, in which community vocalists embark on a mission to perform for vegetation in Newcastle’s Jesmond Dene.

Children’s Voices

Following this approach, another participant will be engaging schoolchildren – on the day itself she is planning to cover Cambridge’s Kettle’s Yard in kids’ letters and drawings that express their dreams and worries for the tomorrow. “Children’s words and images are powerful because they’re not as inhibited as mature perspectives,” she says in her call to action video. “The contributions of youth to the world is something distinctive and hopefully it will provoke a awareness of obligation from everyone. Kids are unbiased. They have fears about the future. But let’s not make it about fear – it should be about positivity and making sure that they have a tomorrow.”

Remembrance and Reflection

Paul Harfleet’s work also appeals to children. Drawing on past experience, his avian project involves illustrating avians and then dressing up as them – and for Remember Nature day he is intending to address Liverpool’s famous Liver bird. He is also staging a itinerant journey of the city, visiting various sites that have been part of his Pansy Project over the last two decades. This endeavor commenced following he experienced three incidents of discrimination on a particular day. As a reaction, Harfleet decided to plant a pansy at the spot where it happened and photograph it – the project has since expanded to cover events reported by other people across the world. “The flowers remain there but they don’t often last,” says Harfleet. “It seems birds consume them, so they’re a short-lived memorial.”

Harfleet chose the flower not just for the direct association – it has long been a derogatory label – but also because its origin is the French verb, penser, to think. “People connected it with a man who is thoughtful, and that, of course, is a bad quality,” he says.

The plan on the event day is to sow flowers at new locations and also refresh the memorials in places he has honored before, all the while talking to those on the walking tour about the events and his recollections. “There’s been quite a few following earlier installations,” he says with regret.

Progressing Optimistically

He desires his work – and